While relaxing in my hotel room after a filling breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food, I decided to call up TS/JS. Hey, I had 3 hours to kill before meeting up with Kim at Katana-Ya. Turns out that they were about to head up to North Beach via the famous San Francisco street car. It was a nice day, so I decided to tag along. Besides, I haven't been on a street car for 20+ years. Now I know why I haven't. I got stuck with hanging onto the side which is both uncomfortable and slightly dangerous. I think the person behind me almost lost her camera and arm as another streetcar passed by. When they say stay close to the car and not stick your arms out, they mean it. We ended up taking the wrong car and ended up at the Wharf instead.

Looks like another walk to the next eating destination. We ended up walking up Columbus until we got to North Beach. With the help of my iPhone, we determined that L'Osteria del Forno would be that destination. Good thing too since I would've walked past it otherwise. Ain't technology wonderful? Except when it crashes whilst talking to someone!!! Yes, my small iPhone pet peeve. In terms of what we ordered, I let the girls do the choosing. I wasn't all that hungry anyways after Brenda's French Soul Food and an impending visit to Katana-Ya later. My only request was to order as light as possible. Thus, we started with the Burrata Mozzarella alla Panna with arugula. Heavenly. That is what I would describe the fresh mozzarella. Simply presented with EVOO, it was texturally pleasing. The arugula provided some bitterness as a contrast. TS/JS really enjoyed this dish and so did I! Another light dish in the Insalata Rustica consisting of tuna, white beans, celery, oregano, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This was very mild, possibly a bit too mild. We all agreed that there needed to be more acid in this. Nice textures, no impact in the flavour department though.

Now onto their specialty - thin crust pizzas. We ordered 2 small to share starting with the Pizza Margherita. When it arrived, something struck me as being odd. The crust looked too uniform. It was almost like it was in a mold while it baked. The crust was indeed quite crispy and decently thin. In fact, it was not bad at all. Only thing - it wasn't blistered or even burnt. Maybe I was expecting something different? The Margherita was very mild and I didn't get too much in the way of basil even though I could see it. Maybe some fresh basil would've helped? I know I'm being a bit hopeful here; yet I really wanted to see buffalo mozzarella. Guess not.

The Pizza Salsiccia had a bit more impact in the flavour department. The portabello mushrooms offered up earthiness and body while the Italian sausage gave the pizza some saltiness and depth. Maybe I'm just a sucker for meat pizzas... Finally, TS decided to have some sausage. Okay, I'm not being gross here, she really wanted the Salame di Cioccolato or Chocolate Salami. It consisted of bittersweet chocolate and French butter cookies. It was not too sweet (hence, bittersweet) and the crunchy cookies were a nice textural contrast. A nice, sharable dessert to end off the meal. Nothing blew us away; but everything was solid and the Burrata was just plain tasty. Pizza threw us for a loop; yet it was good to eat and that's all that matters right?

The Good:- Quaint place- Decent eats- Service was good for us (despite other negative comments)

The Bad:- Not expensive; but not cheap either- Pizza wasn't bad; yet the crust was not what we expected